In loving memory of zeyde Misha
Jan. 5th, 2010 08:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
klezmerToday it's a yortsayt for my grandpa Misha / Shmuel, Z"L (1920–1997).
Minsk, 1958.
On his last yortsayt, my sis and I wrote a couple things we wanted to remember. But there is always more to recollect about the person that gave all his heart raising us.
My Dad has recalled today that dedushka Misha would often make jokes full of wit and humor, till his last days. A man who lived through the hardest times in the Soviet Union, over the 1930s' famine and poverty, 1940s' war, 1950s' starting over from scratch, with a new family at a new place, in Minsk, - he managed to preserve and give us something incredibly important, namely, the ability to smile and be a kindhearted person under any circumstances. Just because this is THE way to survive, just because this is what the kids and grandchildren would need. He also gave an urge for study, - by his own example, by learning English and getting "B" at a Ph.D. exam at the age of 50; by getting two higher eds, just because World War II began when he had one year left at college, and then - mastering a third major and being proficient at it.
Living his life in a country almost entirely isolated from the outer world, my dedushka Misha would read in English and German, apart from his native languages, Yiddish, Ukrainian, and Russian. He held about two dozen patents for technological inventions and improvements in engineering, foundry and forging. He was also highly knowledgeable in geology, particularly mineralogy, and chemistry. He would quote poems and pieces of prose by heart complaining that he could never memorize them properly at school. He would take me to the nearby forest and teach me the names of flowers and trees. Once he took me fishing, to a Minsk suburb, and it was dedushka Misha who helped me catch three tiny ruffs being the only fish I have ever caught in my life.
Dedushka Misha has not been with us for 13 years already. He was just 76, way too young. I could assume he would probably live a longer life here in the U.S. or in Israel. But despite that, each year of his life he lived at a possibly highest degree of honesty and dignity, being respected by anyone who knew him or at least met him once. Many would express their respectful memory of dedushka Misha, even years after he passed away. Each time I heard people's testimonies of what a wonderful person my grandpa was, I felt proud, of course, but also I could feel a doubt in myself, - whether or not I would reach my Grandpa's degree of excelling in everything. I just hope he would not be ashamed of me if he saw me now. And even a tiny bit more.
A likhtikn gan-eydn.
Minsk, 1958.
On his last yortsayt, my sis and I wrote a couple things we wanted to remember. But there is always more to recollect about the person that gave all his heart raising us.
My Dad has recalled today that dedushka Misha would often make jokes full of wit and humor, till his last days. A man who lived through the hardest times in the Soviet Union, over the 1930s' famine and poverty, 1940s' war, 1950s' starting over from scratch, with a new family at a new place, in Minsk, - he managed to preserve and give us something incredibly important, namely, the ability to smile and be a kindhearted person under any circumstances. Just because this is THE way to survive, just because this is what the kids and grandchildren would need. He also gave an urge for study, - by his own example, by learning English and getting "B" at a Ph.D. exam at the age of 50; by getting two higher eds, just because World War II began when he had one year left at college, and then - mastering a third major and being proficient at it.
Living his life in a country almost entirely isolated from the outer world, my dedushka Misha would read in English and German, apart from his native languages, Yiddish, Ukrainian, and Russian. He held about two dozen patents for technological inventions and improvements in engineering, foundry and forging. He was also highly knowledgeable in geology, particularly mineralogy, and chemistry. He would quote poems and pieces of prose by heart complaining that he could never memorize them properly at school. He would take me to the nearby forest and teach me the names of flowers and trees. Once he took me fishing, to a Minsk suburb, and it was dedushka Misha who helped me catch three tiny ruffs being the only fish I have ever caught in my life.
Dedushka Misha has not been with us for 13 years already. He was just 76, way too young. I could assume he would probably live a longer life here in the U.S. or in Israel. But despite that, each year of his life he lived at a possibly highest degree of honesty and dignity, being respected by anyone who knew him or at least met him once. Many would express their respectful memory of dedushka Misha, even years after he passed away. Each time I heard people's testimonies of what a wonderful person my grandpa was, I felt proud, of course, but also I could feel a doubt in myself, - whether or not I would reach my Grandpa's degree of excelling in everything. I just hope he would not be ashamed of me if he saw me now. And even a tiny bit more.
A likhtikn gan-eydn.
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Date: 2010-01-06 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-01-06 03:51 pm (UTC)"When she came to say good-bye to him a year ago, Jan. 6th, 1997 on the day his funeral, she observed his former fellow-employees from the Minsk Tractor Works, where he used to work as a deputy manager of a foundry shop. They shared with each other their surprise at how modest his flat was, with very simple furniture and no luxury, meaning that he, unlike many others from the management, was not corrupted."
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